DeMarcus Ware is the Indispensable One

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One of the funniest things about the Cowboys is how out of proportion the coverage of the team usually is in relation to the importance of the player being covered. Roy Williams gets more ink than just about anyone on the team and you've also heard a lot more about Kyle Kosier, Martellus Bennett and David Buehler this summer than about DeMarcus Ware.

Which, when you think about it, is both totally understandable and totally ridiculous. Understandable because there really aren't any question marks about what Ware brings to the table. He's great, he's healthy and there really isn't all that much more to say than that. It's also totally ridiculous, because those four players combined don't mean as much to the Cowboys as Ware.

That's why Matt Mosley of ESPN has named Ware the most indispensable player on the Cowboys in 2010. It's not just about the number of sacks Ware piles up or the fact that, unlike many good pass rushers, he is also stout against the run. It's the way he forces the opposition to choose between stopping him and taking their chances with everyone else or letting a blocker try to handle Ware all by his lonesome. Wonderful choices, sort of like picking between getting stampeded by elephants or skydiving with a chute that won't open.

But most indispensable? What about Tony Romo?

Mosley isn't picking quarterbacks, which shows some good sense because if the thought losing your starting quarterback doesn't fill you with dread then you don't figure to be a very good football team. So call Romo equally indispensable if you like and then move on to the real contender to Ware's crown.

That would be Jay Ratliff. With Ratliff plugging the middle, you could argue that teams are forced to try more things to the outside and, in turn, gives Ware more chances to make the plays that have made him such a dynamic force. Much of what good nose tackles do goes unnoticed because it winds up benefitting the hightlight reels and stat lines of everybody else on the team, but you need only watch a defense without one struggle to know just how vital Ratliff is to everything the Cowboys want to do.

Pick your poison, but, either way, it's pretty good to be the Cowboys when you have two players like that to unleash on the opposition every week.